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Size of Smith Cloud on the Sky
This composite image shows the size and location of the Smith Cloud on the sky. The cloud appears in false-color, radio wavelengths as observed by the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. The visible-light image of the background star field shows the cloud's location in the direction of the summer constellation Aquila. The cloud is 15 degrees across in angular size – the width of an outstretched hand at arm's length. The apparent size of the full moon is added for comparison.
About the Object
- ConstellationConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.Aquila
About the Data
- Data DescriptionData DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.The HST data were taken from proposal 13840: A. Fox and K. Sembach (STScI), F. Lockman (NRAO/Green Bank), B. Menard (Johns Hopkins University), N. Lehner (University of Notre Dame), A. Hill (Haverford College), K. Barger (Texas Christian University), F. Heitsch and D.V. Stark (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), M. Rahman (Johns Hopkins University), and R. Benjamin (University of Wisconsin, Whitewater). The science team for these findings includes: A. Fox (STScI), N. Lehner (University of Notre Dame), F. Lockman (NRAO/Green Bank), B. Wakker (University of Wisconsin, Madison), A. Hill (Haverford College), F. Heitsch (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), D.V. Stark (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill/Kavli Institute, Kashiwa, Japan), K. Barger (Texas Christian University), K. Sembach (STScI), and M. Rahman (Johns Hopkins University).
- Object NameObject NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.Smith Cloud, Milky Way
- Object DescriptionObject DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.Active Galactic Nuclei Beyond the Milky Way's High-Velocity Smith Cloud
- Release DateJanuary 28, 2016
- Science ReleaseHubble Sees Monstrous Cloud Boomerangs Back to Our Galaxy
- Credit
Related Images & Videos
Trajectory of Smith Cloud
This diagram shows the 100-million-year-long trajectory of the Smith Cloud as it arcs out of the plane of our Milky Way galaxy and then returns like a boomerang. Hubble Space Telescope measurements show that the cloud, because of its chemical composition, came out of a region...
Hubble Characterizes the High-Velocity Smith Cloud
The infalling Smith Cloud does not emit light at wavelengths that the Hubble Space Telescope is sensitive to. However, Hubble's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph can measure how the light from distant background objects is affected as it passes through the cloud. These measurements...
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Last Updated
Mar 28, 2025
Contact
Media
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
